'No seat vacant': Congress to take on Mamata with 'big leader', contest all 294 in Bengal polls

NEW DELHI: Signalling an aggressive push ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, the Congress on Saturday said it will contest all 294 seats in the state and will not shy away from fielding a candidate against chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhawanipur.The announcement came after a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) in Delhi, where senior leaders held detailed discussions on candidate selection. AICC in-charge for West Bengal Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the party intends to put up candidates in every constituency, underscoring a full-scale electoral contest."Anyone who contests from Bhawanipur will be a big leader for us. We are fielding candidates on all 294 seats and we are not leaving any seat vacant," Mir told news agency PTI.The high-level meeting was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, and several leaders from West Bengal.Senior figures including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CEC members Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Salman Khurshid, TS Singhdeo, KJ George, PL Punia and Amee Yajnik were also present.The move indicates Congress’ intent to reassert itself in a state where it has struggled in recent years, even as the electoral battle is expected to be dominated by the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.West Bengal will go to polls in two phases on April 23 and 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.